Introducing…Suzanne Gailey
‘Nowhere Left’ is Suzanne Gailey’s breath-taking, poignant second single. Thought provoking and deeply affecting, from the very first drum beat, this song is about the devastation of war.
“Another unhappy song of mine!” she laughs. Artistic integrity is important to Suzanne, who is passionate about the issues we face today, and brings raw emotion into all of her performances.
We discuss the interesting and diverse experiences in Suzanne’s music career to date, from being classically trained, to joining the Morris Choir in London, to creating the unique vocal harmonies project WAWM. We talk about dealing with nerves when performing on stage, and what’s next on the agenda.
I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation over coffee one morning at The Village, Islingword Road, Brighton. There is something very striking about Suzanne. As much as she doesn’t want to come across as “too preachy”, Suzanne is a deep thinker: intelligent, wise and thoughtful. Quiet and unpretentious, she can silence an audience with her pure vocals and evocative lyrics.
Nowhere Left contains an important message for us all to hear. I urge you to stop and really listen.
It was written when Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, and it was written in a moment of despair really. We had just come out of lockdown, and just gone through that crisis, then this happened. I was thinking “what else is going to happen?” This is the way my mind works. ‘This is it, this is the end’ kind of thing.
I heard this journalist make a comment about how we are sitting, observing from a paralysed vantage point. I thought that was a good line, which I have included in the song. It is like we are just sitting here, watching, while this is all taking place.
So that’s where it came from really. There is something about when people get news weary, and it ends up not affecting them anymore. This is going to be another thing that we are bombarded with and then gets moved down the level of importance.
This song says “No, Wake Up, Listen”. It’s a warning sign.
Another unhappy song of mine! Most of my songs are like this haha!
“We are sitting, observing from a paralysed vantage point...it is like we are just sitting here watching, while this is all taking place”
I was lucky enough to hear you perfecting Nowhere Left at open mic nights, the finished version with a band is something else…
My songs tend to go through a few different versions until I reach the pinnacle. I get that playing out. I can think: “Oh OK that didn’t work, maybe I will try this”.
I recorded Nowhere Left with Nick Williams. He runs the Brunswick Open Mic and has a music studio. He is a musical maestro. I love the stripped back version of this song, but I think it sounds great with a band. Nick plays bass, drums and guitar. I did my first single Epilogue with him, and hopefully do a few more.
There is a sample at the end. It is taken from a speech Zolensky made. I did think about whether to include it, thinking “Is this going to be really cheesy?” But I love it. I feel moved every time I hear it. He is saying “if you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs”. It is a message of defiance. Amongst the terrifying, desperate horrors of war, where there is nowhere left, there is a hint of defiance. You will have to face us.
“I prefer listening to people who bring emotion into their performance, I hope that is what I do as well”
Did this song come quickly to you? Do you have a song-writing process?
I have a book, which just has words and phrases in it. Normally, I am playing around with the guitar and I just get something on the guitar, and I just start writing.
With Nowhere Left, it was all there. ‘Hear the sirens wail’ came very early. The rest came over three weeks. I was listening to the news a lot. Maybe that’s why my songs are so sad, I need to stop listening to the news!
I am choosing songs that fit to get an EP out by the end of the year. There is a theme, it’s what we are talking about. Wake up, and watch what is going on around you. But I don’t want to be too preachy about it.
I wrote my first single Epilogue really quickly. Sometimes it just feels right. It was the first song I recorded, I already had an idea of how I want it to sound, how I wanted to arrange it. It was the same with Nowhere Left.
You are a classically trained musician?
Yes, I come from quite a musical family. My great grandfather was the organist for St Patricks Cathedral in Dublin, and he was a composer as well. He wrote religious music. My granny was an organist, and my mum has sung in choirs. There was always this classical interest, and my mum is mega interested in classical music.
I had no choice really! I was pushed into playing the piano at the age of 3! And I enjoyed it to a point, then it became a bit, you know when you hit those teenage years… I did all the grades and then I was like, I am done!
Now I am so glad that I did it. I don’t play the piano as much as I used to. I miss it. It sits in my house saying ‘play me’!
The piano gave me the basis of musical theory. I can hear my mums voice saying, ‘I am giving you all the basics you need in life’! She was right. I also played the violin, but I don’t think I was very good at it. I have friends who play the fiddle in folk bands, and they tell me it is very different to playing classical music on the violin. So, I might try and get back into it at some point.
You studied vocal technique at the Institute of Contemporary Music in London?
Yes, I really enjoyed it. It was learning how to perform, and we were taught how to sing on a mic, how to exercise your voice. I already understood breath technique and voice projection, but this was the next level I suppose.
Do you have any vocal tips for aspiring singers?
My good friend is a vocal coach, and she gave me lots of freebies. It is really all about your diaphragm, and voice control. You need to control the amount of breath that comes out when you are singing.
My voice has changed dramatically. I was part of a vocal trio WAWM. It was so pure, and I enjoyed it. It was intense as we were just voices and no instruments, so we had to be really on point. It was gentle singing, and we had to be in harmony with each other. Now I am a bit more belty-outey! I try to bring more emotion into it. I prefer listening to people who are perhaps not the best singers in the world but are bringing emotion into their performance, and I hope that is what I do as well.
WAWM is a unique interesting project – Did it stand for something?
It did haha! We were so pretentious. “You have to make it stand for whatever you want” – but I am going to keep the mystery going.
“The audience turned up and went to sleep for the night... it was really interactive, we sang to them while they watched these incredible visual projections.”
We met doing the Arms of Sleep for Brighton Festival. It was this amazing vocal project. We were based in this building in Furle Estate. The audience turned up and went to sleep for the night. When they arrived, we were all dressed up as hotel staff in black and white and started singing songs to them. It was really interactive. We had to read them a bedtime story. We sung at them, while they watched these incredible visual projections. Then we woke them up at 5am, singing to them. It was incredibly intense. We were basically awake for 4 days.
We thought it was such an incredible experience and we wanted to recreate it. So, we found poetry written by women and put vocal harmonies to them and dressed up as ghostly Victorian Women.
I loved that we were constantly looking for women poets such as Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickenson. We were interpreting and changing the poem around to make it work for us, and to make it relevant to what we were doing. That’s kind of carrying on that folk tradition.
We really enjoyed it. Because it was so unique, we found it hard to know how to promote ourselves and nobody really knew what to do with us. Our first ever gig was in my house, which really worked well. We had a bar, and enough room for 18 people and we put candles all around and made it atmospheric. We weren’t miked up and we could move around freely. In a venue, we had to be miked, and that’s where we got stuck as we wanted to be able to provide more movement and other world experience. We are still good friends and I love those ladies. We occasionally still sing together.
And you were in the Morris Folk Choir?
Yes, in London. We were the only folk choir at the time, so we got to do all these weird and wonderful gigs. It taught me a lot about folk music and now I have a back catalogue of folk songs in my mind. All genres, not just traditional.
We would have a theme every term and people would choose folk songs from that genre. It could be anything from the Pogues to the Levellers to Bob Dylan. We were all quite right on, quite socialist, so it was a great experience. They run a folk club every month, and that gave me a lot of courage to perform. They encouraged us to just stand up and sing a folk song, and you end up getting your confidence. They are beautiful people, and I am still good friends with them now. It was a really welcoming way to gain confidence in performance.
When did you start performing your own songs?
It was at the Morris Folk Choir folk club, probably about 10 years ago. There is something quite vulnerable about singing your own stuff. I had to have about 100 pints of beer the first time I went on stage to sing one of my own songs! But when I left London, they gave me a picture of a girl singer. She has long hair in a ponytail, and an acoustic guitar, and bared a slight resemblance to me. They all signed it. They were saying ‘keep playing’. They didn’t say ‘really don’t bother’ haha! So that was lovely.
Do you still get nervous when you perform?
I think it is natural. People always say, if you don’t have nerves, you’ve kind of given up and I think that is true. I have seen well-known artists, who have been playing for 20 30 years, and you can tell, in their first song, there is a bit of nerves and then they settle in.
I have a routine that I must follow, or things I must wear. I am incredibly superstitious! I always have to have my red lipstick on!
“When it suddenly goes quiet, that’s when you’re like, ooh I’ve got them.”
On stage, you have a million and one things going on in your mind. What’s the next line? Did I mess that bit up? I liken it to a swan swimming, looking serene on the surface, but with legs flapping madly underneath.
What are your musical influences?
I like a lot of different styles of music. I guess my songs are more folk punk/ Americana then anything else, but I’m not a big fan of genre and pigeonholing music. All my songs are all over the place really. I love original musicians. I like ones that stand out. They don’t have to be the best singer, but they are bringing something different.
I think musical influences such as Patti Smith come to mind and Gillian Welch. I often perform a cover of one of her songs ‘Caleb Meyer’. Oh, and Tim Erikson, I absolutely love. He has a beautiful voice, very Americana. I don't know if you know New Model Army, they are a folk punk band who started writing songs about social injustice many years ago and are still releasing albums as there is still so much to say! I guess maybe that is where I get my preachy side from, but I guess that is the role of folk music in some ways… look at Bob Dylan and Billy Bragg!
I play in a post punk/art rock band as well, Danger of Death, so that satisfies my louder punk/rock side too!
As well as all of these interesting projects, you are an archaeologist! How did you get interested in archaeology?
Hmm I would say Indiana Jones! Haha! And I used to love digging in the garden, finding old bits of crockery.
I am interested in our ancestors, visiting old places, learning about old things.
What are your views on fame?
I think there are different bits of fame. Celebrity culture is beyond me. I think we have become too obsessed with it. But it has always been like that. Maybe we need something rose tinted to look up to.
I would like people to hear and appreciate my music and I would like to play some festivals next year. That to me would be success right now.
My friend says to me ‘are you doing this for yourself, or for other people?’ And I have to keep saying that to myself. Mentally there’s a lot of ego involved and comparison and so I have to remind myself what I am doing it for.
“There is something quite vulnerable about singing your own stuff. ”
I have to do that quite often, especially when you are playing in a bar and no one is listening, but when it suddenly goes quiet, that’s when you’re like.. ‘ooh I’ve got them’.
Thank you so much Suzanne. Don’t miss the opportunity to see Suzanne live. Here are her upcoming gigs:
The Brunswick Cellar Bar on Friday 6th October along with Boots McMahon, Redvox and No Hat for Jo for Boots Birthday bash
The Mesmerist in Brighton on Wednesday 25th October
The Bees Mouth in Hove on Friday 10th November along with Leanne Rose Revitt, John Lithgow and Boots McMahon
The Brunswick Cellar bar on Sunday 19th November for charity fundraiser for Grassroots Suicide Prevention.
For more info and news check out Suzanne’s Music Page on Facebook for more info: https://www.facebook.com/SuzannesMusic